The global banking industry has shown many signs of renewed health. The recovery from the financial crisis is—at long last—complete, capital stocks have been replenished, and banks have taken an ax to costs.

Yet profits remain elusive. For seven consecutive years, its return on equity (ROE) has stayed in a narrowly defined range, between 8 and 10 percent—a level that most consider the industry’s cost of equity. In 2016, ROE was at 8.6 percent, down a full percentage point from 2015. Moreover, the industry’s global revenue growth rate slowed to 3 percent in 2016, down from an annual average of 6 percent over the preceding five years.

African banking still has the highest cost of risk in the world, not least because of a paucity of credit bureaus combined with immature risk-management practices in many banks. A number of exciting innovations in credit-risk management are emerging, some of which will help unlock the consumercredit opportunity in Africa.

Make no mistake, the rich colorful legacy of the banking industry will fill countless future studies as people analyze and scrutinize past business dealings over the decades ahead, but the days of being able to walk into an actual bank building and make deposits and withdrawals is coming to an end and pretty soon.

When it comes to money, it’s all about trust. Once consumer confidence and trust begins to erode, it becomes a mammoth task to regain it.

Like many businesses of the past, the money world focused on people with money, leaving countless millions either unbanked or under-banked. But in a highly connected world, where every consumer has networks, influence and value, eyeballs count.

For some, banking leaders were the notorious puppet masters who manipulated the stock market, created new legislation, and made self-serving decisions that favored the rich and powerful at the expense of everyone else. To others, they were merely hardnosed business people making the most of their position to keep investor returns high.

As an industry that had been artificially propped up with innumerable laws and a banker-friendly political system funded by banker-friendly rich people, the final days have been delayed far past the time when the first foot entered the coffin. But all industries will eventually end, and this is the sad story of this one.

Is this a realistic scenario? If so, what are the key factors we should be paying attention to today? The answers will probably surprise you.

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This Document is a free Resource from the Institute of Future Learning, facilitated by Lead Futurist Kwame A.A Opoku.